hard drive recovery question

[[email protected]]

Hey guys,

My hard drive was dead, i tried freezing it which didnt work, and as i
figured I had nothing to lose(Wasnt being recognised by bios at all,
definite physical problem, clicking sounds), i took it apart, how i
stuffed up the heads...the platters are still safe and intact, is there
any possibilty of transferring them to a new hdd, otherwise any idea
how much it would cost to recover data, or if it is possible it is
cheaper to get it recovered overseas, as im am traveling to asia soon,
maybe its cheaper in thailand/taiwan etc?

many thanks,
josh

 

[Tom MacIntyre]

Hey guys,

My hard drive was dead, i tried freezing it which didnt work, and as i
figured I had nothing to lose(Wasnt being recognised by bios at all,
definite physical problem, clicking sounds), i took it apart, how i
stuffed up the heads...the platters are still safe and intact, is there
any possibilty of transferring them to a new hdd, otherwise any idea
how much it would cost to recover data, or if it is possible it is
cheaper to get it recovered overseas, as im am traveling to asia soon,
maybe its cheaper in thailand/taiwan etc?

many thanks,
josh

Expensive, and possibly not even doable.

Tom

 

[[email protected]]

You can get the data recovered for several hundred dollars, but it may
take a bit of time to send it in and you are not guaranteed the data
will be recovered in which you still pay the money. You have to ask
yourself, is the data really worth a backup. The fact that you opened
the hermetic case in a non-clean room environment lessens the ability
to recover the data at all and some houses may not even accept the
drive.

http://www.gillware.com/?campaign=google3

 

[Art]

Having opened the case and subjecting the platters and heads to nominal
atmospheric contaminates will probably render any recovery highly
improbable. This is one of the last things you want to do, maybe just to
harvest the nice magnets from the inside or if you like the see the mirror
finishes on the platters. At this point you are basically FUBARD as far a
recovery is concerned.

 

[[email protected]]

Having opened the case and subjecting the platters and heads to nominal
atmospheric contaminates will probably render any recovery highly
improbable. This is one of the last things you want to do, maybe just to
harvest the nice magnets from the inside or if you like the see the mirror
finishes on the platters. At this point you are basically FUBARD as far a
recovery is concerned.

It would be nice to have my data back, but its not crucial in any way..

My expertise is in computer forensics, if there was any way to get a
bios to recognise my harddrive, I could then recover what i need, as
the two files I am after are each less than 25kb in size. Is it
possible at all to repair or replace the arm and heads, or transfer the
platters to a different drive?

Thanks

 

[Clint Sharp]

My expertise is in computer forensics, if there was any way to get a
bios to recognise my harddrive, I could then recover what i need, as
the two files I am after are each less than 25kb in size.

If your expertise if computer forensics, why did you open the drive,
surely you would know that you stood no chance of repairing it and every
chance of making it totally unrecoverable?

Is it
possible at all to repair or replace the arm and heads, or transfer the
platters to a different drive?

Yes, it is entirely possible but you need a clean room and lots of
expensive equipment plus the experience to use it to do this with any
chance of success on a modern drive. I *have* done this on a very old
drive (20MB MFM IIRC, it was a long time ago) and successfully recovered
data, but even on the drive I had it was a very delicate and tricky
operation and you could actually see the heads and their connecting
wires on that drive.

 

[NSM]

It would be nice to have my data back, but its not crucial in any way..

My expertise is in computer forensics, if there was any way to get a
bios to recognise my harddrive, I could then recover what i need, as
the two files I am after are each less than 25kb in size. Is it
possible at all to repair or replace the arm and heads, or transfer the
platters to a different drive?

At this point I doubt anyone can repair it anywhere. If you can find a truly
identical drive a recovery service may be able to help, but think $400 as
the sort of price you will pay.

N

 

[Dave Moore]

:
:
: Art wrote:
: > Having opened the case and subjecting the platters and heads to nominal
: > atmospheric contaminates will probably render any recovery highly
: > improbable. This is one of the last things you want to do, maybe just to
: > harvest the nice magnets from the inside or if you like the see the mirror
: > finishes on the platters. At this point you are basically FUBARD as far a
: > recovery is concerned.
: > : > > You can get the data recovered for several hundred dollars, but it may
: > > take a bit of time to send it in and you are not guaranteed the data
: > > will be recovered in which you still pay the money. You have to ask
: > > yourself, is the data really worth a backup. The fact that you opened
: > > the hermetic case in a non-clean room environment lessens the ability
: > > to recover the data at all and some houses may not even accept the
: > > drive.
: > >
: > > http://www.gillware.com/?campaign=google3
: > >
:
: It would be nice to have my data back, but its not crucial in any way..
:
: My expertise is in computer forensics, if there was any way to get a
: bios to recognise my harddrive, I could then recover what i need, as
: the two files I am after are each less than 25kb in size. Is it
: possible at all to repair or replace the arm and heads, or transfer the
: platters to a different drive?
:
: Thanks


If BIOS won't detect the drive, probably the circuit board
on the drive was defective and there probably wasn't any good
reason to open the HDA assembly.

You could probably buy an identical drive off Ebay just to get
the HDA controller PCB off of it to replace the bad one
on the defective drive.



:

 

[James Sweet]

If BIOS won't detect the drive, probably the circuit board
on the drive was defective and there probably wasn't any good
reason to open the HDA assembly.

You could probably buy an identical drive off Ebay just to get
the HDA controller PCB off of it to replace the bad one
on the defective drive.

This does sometimes work, though the newer the drive, the less likely it is.
I ran a Conner 1.2 gig drive for several years after a board swap.

Opening it was definitly a bad idea, but so long as the platters have not
been touched or anything fooled with inside it then it may still read fine
for a while.

 

[Hugh Prescott]

If your area of interest is computer forensics then you have rendered the
forensic data on the drive null and void. Data recovery is now an extreamly
remote possibility.

Had the drive not been opened it would normally be possible to have a data
recovery house repair the drive and recover the data to a CD.

Last drive recovery for a client was a failed Novell data drive due to a
single head going open. Drive repair was something like $50, data recovery
to a CD was $1,600.

And never trust a drive after a failure, It's not worth it.

And yes I have poped the top on drives with striction and got them spinning
without a clean room. Quick burn to a CD and install a new drive. Sometimes
you are luck, mostly not.

Hugh

 

[Tom MacIntyre]

If your area of interest is computer forensics then you have rendered the
forensic data on the drive null and void. Data recovery is now an extreamly
remote possibility.

It wasn't area of interest, it was "expertise".

Tom